Furniture

TRAVEL DESK - While the families had the finest furnishings in their various estates, very little remains today in the hands of their descendants. It was not very practical for those who fled the Bolsheviks to do so with furnishings in tow. The various estates were looted by the peasants at the time and many homes were burned to the ground - along with their furnishings. The majority of homes outside Russia (including Ukraine) were leased properties where the furnishings by and large did not belong to the pertinent family members.

Some of the furnishings from the Cannes properties were moved to Switzerland after their sale in 1922. There were several sofas , dining room leather chairs with family crests and mantle clocks and grandfather clocks. However, one piece is worthy of mention in that it dated back to the mid 1800s. It is most likely of english manufacture and was made for Nadehzda (Hope) Vladimirovna Hlopov in the 1880s or 1890s. As a traveling desk, she took it wherever she went including trips to Cannes from Kiev. After she sold her house in Cannes, she packed up and joined her daughter and son-in-law in Montreux and eventually Bursinel. Her desk followed along and remains with the family to this day. The desk has two parts: the desk itself with foldout panel, drawers and calender etc and the base with two cabinets upon which the desktop is set.